Lawsuit: Ro Khanna Recruited Republicans to Dilute Vote

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The local congressional race between seven-term incumbent Mike Honda and newcomer Ro Khanna has been getting national attention.

Now, there are new allegations over signature irregularities filed by a Republican involving Khanna, the former aide to President Barack Obama.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday accused Khanna, a Democrat, of recruiting two Republican candidates to join the race at the last minute. Still, the lawsuit provides no direct evidence proving Khanna helped Joel Vanlandingham and Vinesh Singh Rathore into the race. The lawsuit alleges that Rathore and Vanlandingham submitted nomination papers indicating that the nominations for candidacy weren't signed by the people themselves, which is required by law, or bore addresses or handwriting that differed from their voter registration addresses.

Khanna's campaign blasted the allegation as baseless. And on Wednesday afternoon, a Sacramento judge disqualified Rathoer as a candidate, saying he didn't submit enough valid signatures, according to The Recorder.

The lawsuit says Khanna did this to split the Republican vote and increase his own chances of winning.

The suit was filed by an Alameda County Republican Official, Jeffrey Wald, of Fremont.

Wald is asking that VanLandingham and Singh be kicked off the June primary ballot.

In the lawsuit, Wald claims, "Khanna recruited candidates to enter the race as Republicans to split the Republican vote three ways, effectively diluting votes that would otherwise be cast in favor of Singh.”